In a severe frontal vehicle crash impact, there is often intrusion into the footwell region of the vehicle. Such intrusion may result in severe lower leg injury to the driver or a front passenger. To better manufacture vehicles to shield against such an impact, automobile manufacturers conduct a broad range of barrier crash tests when developing a vehicle for production. In many of these tests, requirements exist for anthropomorphic test device (ATD, also known as a “test dummy”) leg values. For example, the tibia index is the primary lower leg measurement used to predict lower leg injury. The tibia index is an interaction formula that includes both axial forces and moments. The tibia index is used to predict damage to an actual human tibia.
Test device leg values are difficult to accurately assess in conventional testing equipment known in the art. For example, with the traditional HYGE crash simulation sled test, lower leg values are difficult to assess because the HYGE system is a non-intrusion environment. Thus, with a HYGE system, there is no intrusion into the footwell region. Although a traditional HYGE test is suitable for analysis measurements about the head and chest areas, the HYGE test is ill-suited for lower leg analysis. Additionally, lower leg values also are difficult to assess with computer aided engineering (CAE) due to the limited fidelity in the MADYMO (design and crash simulation software) test manikin. Although CAE analysis includes footwell rotational and translational motion, the MADYMO test manikin does not accurately measure lower leg values. Thus, the simulation tools that are currently available for impact sled testing, such as CAE and traditional HYGE testing, cannot meaningfully assess lower extremity injury criteria.